Friday, February 5, 2010

Tuxedo tales, vol. 2

When we left off last Sunday, Jon and I were driving home from the mall and I was wondering why it is that guys don't often buy their wedding attire and girls do, even though a suit or tux is far more useful than a wedding dress. Once we got back to the house, I logged onto my computer and sent photos of our rental tux modeling session to his parents and mine, and Jon and I went about our usual Saturday afternoon business.

That night, I stayed home to work (and by work, I mean watch Miss America) and Jon went to review a jazz concert. When Jon got home, he was on the phone with his mom, talking tuxes -- it turned out I wasn't the only one who thought the tux at Savvi didn't fit very well. Over the course of their conversation, Jon and his mom decided that if he could find a nice tux within a certain budget, she would buy it for him, so he could look and feel his best for the wedding. (At first I felt bad, because I thought I had somehow made Jon and his mom feel as though they had to purchase a tux, but I talked to Jon's mom myself and determined that not to be the case -- phew.)

You probably know what happened next -- intense internet searching! We checked out department stores, menswear stores, and younger hipper stores like J. Crew and Banana Republic. J. Crew had a nice tux on clearance -- final sale only -- and one at full price, and the handy thing about those is that they are cut in the same style as the store's two suit styles, only they're tuxedos. Jon and I decided that we would meet at the mall immediately after church (around noon) the next morning, where he could try on those two J. Crew styles in normal-suit form and then run around to department stores as needed.

As it happened, church ran long and I arrived at the mall around 12:30. By that time, the decision was already made. Jon had been working with an excellent J. Crew salesdude who put him in a super sharp-looking Ludlow suit, and he was sold. We also asked about tux shirts, but they didn't carry the style Jon wanted, so with that resolved we headed to the store's red phone to place an order. Done and done! (Sidenote: This is turning out to be a very J. Crew wedding, no? Definitely didn't see that coming, since I've been feuding with the store for years now...)

Fast-forward to Thursday, and guess what turned up on our doorstep? Jon's awesome new tuxedo! Doesn't he look dapper?

Now, let's have a look at the other one, just for the sake of comparison:

He looks a bit trimmer in the J. Crew, no? And happier? I think so. This was definitely a good move, and he'll be able to use it for all black-tie events in the future. Also a good move: hanging onto the free groom's tux rental at Savvi so he can have shiny shoes and the tie and vest to match the rest of the gang on the big day. What do you think of that?